Roberto Mancini: Rivals don't worry me

ROBERTO Mancini claims that his title rivals are trying to pile pressure on his head because the ‘big four’ are now running scared of Manchester City.

Roberto Mancini claims that his title rivals are running scared of Manchester City []

Even the other teams vying to break the traditional four-way hold over the Premier League have chipped in with opinions on City’s prospects.

Tottenham boss Harry Redknapp last week claimed that he would win the title if he could make the four or five world-class signings Mancini is expected to complete before the transfer window closes.

Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson claims to “expect a battle” from his neighbours and Chelsea boss Carlo Ancelotti feels they are an “important rival”.

It is all designed to increase the intensity on Mancini, 45, but the Italian is able to give them a dismissive shrug. He has been long enough in the game to form his own opinion as to what is going on.

Mancini said: “I think all the other teams are saying this because for 10 years there were only four teams challenging for the title.

“This year, there are five. I think all these teams over the years have spent a lot of money. Manchester United, Tottenham, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool. They seem like City do now. There isn’t a difference.

“I think they are scared. At the moment, only Manchester City are in the market place buying players. But that is normal because Manchester City want to improve and the other teams are just big teams who want strength in depth.”

He will make his own mind up about how well City can do – and whether a title bid is realistically on the cards this season – once the transfer window has ended and the first few Premier League games have been played. “Football is strange, especially after a World Cup,” he said. “I don’t know if it is possible to win the league. I want to wait to make that judgment until the market has closed and the Premier League has started.

“I think we have improved as a team, with new players, and we have done some good work in the last two weeks. It just depends. My feelings are good, though.

“The difference is that we have brought about four, five or six players. Other teams will have the same teams as they had last year. But I think we have a big opportunity to win the league if we believe in ourselves and are doing our jobs. We have improved as a team.”

Jerome Boateng, David Silva, Yaya Toure and Alexander Kolarov take his summer spending to £77 million and the Middle East moneymen will expect City to be on the fast track for honours.

But then, they are not exactly renowned for their patience in Serie A either, and Mancini lasted four years, delivering the title in his second full season and then only after Juventus were stripped of it following the match-fixing scandal.

He says it is simply that he does not feel the pressure and with his laid-back demeanour throughout City’s current tour to the USA, it is hard not to believe him.

“Football has been my life for 30 years,” he said. “I don’t feel pressure. I will be in management another 15 years maybe, I am sure I will win things. Before I was a manager, I was a player for 11 years. I managed Inter for four years – no other manager has been there for that long.

“I did not have a lot of money to spend at Inter. They spent a lot of money in the 10 years before I arrived. In two years at Inter we became a strong team, but we arrived at that point because we worked hard and went through a lot of difficulty.

“I hope here it will be the same. You can’t win if you don’t work even if you buy players. You need players with good attitude and mentality, but my feelings are good because I think this will be a fantastic year.”

First he has to trim his squad to 25, which means telling a lot of the game’s biggest egos that they are simply not good enough. But it is nothing Mancini cannot handle.

“I built Inter,” he said. “There, I had 24 players with different mentalities. Strong players. But this is what I am paid for. It is a challenge, because I want to win with a club that never used to win in the past. This, for me, is a big challenge.

“And if we do win the title it will not be for me, because it is just my job. It will be for the supporters and the players because they give everything for this club. For them, I want to win a trophy this year and I think everybody follows this dream.”

ALTHOUGH signed as a defender, Kolarov is looking forward to bringing his spectacular goalscoring form to Eastlands. On his full debut for Lazio, Kolarov unleashed a 40-yard thunderbolt to score against Reggina and regularly chipped in with goals.

“We have Tevez, Adebayor and others who will always score our goals. But I think it’s a nice bonus for a team to have a defender who will score three, four, five goals a season,” said Kolarov.